Scart Freeview, Digital HD TV Receiver Recorder Tuner Set Top Box, USB Memory Recorder, Hinged for LCD TVs by Digi-fun

The DCB-T was very easy to set up, it just plugged into the scart socket at the back of the TV, and needed an aerial connection. The box hinged neatly behind the TV, with an infra red eye sitting at the front awaiting my command. The initial channel installation was quick and easy, and the channels were arranged in exactly the order I wished for, which was very satisfying, as I had read some reviews that critised the arrangement. It found 68 TV channels (but still nothing worth watching!) and 25 radio channels which was a surprise, as I had paid a great deal of money recently for an Avtex TV for my Motorhome which is unable to get any radio channels. After losing the local analogue signal last week, I bought the DCB-T to breathe new life into my old Orion camping TV forgetting to check whether it was able to use a 12volt supply. Unfortunately the DCB-T only runs on 240v, but thanks to the DCB-T I can now use this wonderful little TV around the house, without a big box having to sit beside it. My only niggle is that there were no batteries supplied for the remote control. The instructions were clear and easy to follow, being a man I didnt need to read the instructions anyway, but when I eventually read them it told me not to connect the scart plug with the unit switched on, which of course is exactly what I had already done, but no damage was caused.A couple of features are worth mentioning, the subtitle feature is incredible with its different language facilities, and the Electronic Program Guide is quicker and more usable than my main home TV.I am looking forward to playing with the usb photo playback and the recording functions, it has an mini USB plug socket so I need to get an adaptor usb cable before I can use my usb stick.I use this setup in the kitchen to watch breakfast TV but the signal source is in Yorkshire. Look North is fine and interesting, but Look East is more local for us but not available on Freeview. On the old analogue system, I could get both, although the best picture was Look North.

So good we bought two of them. Really.Bought one a while ago for the TV in a spare room, but we don't use that TV much. Nevertheless, the fact that this offers HD as well as being super-cheap and very compact, was a decider.Recently the TV in the kitchen gave up, so bought a HD flat panel display and a sound bar and bought another one of these. Connected it all together using HDMI and presto! we have a full HD (1080p) TV on a 15-inch display, with excellent sound.A couple of minor quibbles, so it does not get the full 5-stars:* The TV guide is nearly impossible to use* It is a bit slow to respond to the button pushes on the remote. I think this is due to limited processing power on the internal chips.* the red LED on the magic eye receiver is a bit bright* when used for radio, the screen id not blanked out, or even dimmed.Those few quibbles aside, I'm thrilled with it for the price. I use the USB out on the Teknikum box to power the sound bar, as we record TV elsewhere.The picture is excellent at 1080p; the sound coming out of the sound bar is very good. The unit is very compact; I have taped it to the back of the flat panel, so it does not take up space.I did manage to switch on the software update function, so the thing would turn on every day at 4am, asking for confirmation of a search for new software. Took me a while to work out how to switch that off (menu-->setting-->Update-->OTA-->off), but now it is just ideal for our needs. I have no hesitation in recommending this product to other purchasers

At this price point you might not expect too much of this product, but it's worth persevering with it.It arrived earlier than anticipated, and the queries I had were dealt with very fast, including one reply on a Sunday morning. Impressive, and for me, a company worth doing business with.As to the item - it's neatly packaged, and you get the device, a power supply, a remote control (with no batteries, so two AAA required from your own resources) a little IR receiver, a USB extender cable, and little gadget with a USB plug at one end and a socket for an SD card at the other, and a manual, of sorts. Pretty impressive for less than twenty quid!As a Freeview receiver, it really was a case of plug it in, turn it, let it find the channels, watch the TV. The channel ordering isn't immediately ideal, if you care, but can be fiddled with if desired. It doesn't respond to the remote very fast, or change channels/pop up the EPG (yes there is one) very quickly, but it's acceptable. Picture quality is ok too - not going to set the world on fire but perfectly watchable, and no issues wth lip sync or ghosting. No nasties.The strength of this unit though, and my reason for purchase, is the ability to record onto an external USB device, which is hard to find at this price point. As long as your USB device is formatted FAT32 it's fine, and if it is not and you are prepared to allow it to, the unit will format it for you.Recording can be done in three ways. You can just press "Rec" on the remote when watching a programme and it records. Or you can pull up the EPG, navigate to a programme somewhere in the next seven days, press Record and it "makes a booking" - yep, it records. You can also display your "bookings" and delete them if you make a mistake. Finally, if you are old school, or want some finer control, you can set up a timed recording on a set channel at whatever times you want, so you can add ten minutes or whatever if you think there might be an overrrun.The manual states that the unit will shut down after a couple of hours if you don't press the remote. I thought at first that meant it wouldn't record something in the middle of the night, but it worked fine.So, what do you get when you record? Simple enough - it creates a dated and sensibly, named after the channel folder on your USB device, and in there you get files. Easy eh? Not quite.By default it seems to produce files in .dvr format, which is used by lots of digital recorders. However, not all .dvr files are the same, and the manufacturer has some leeway in exactly how they are produced, including making them unplayable on any other device. At first I thought my plans to archive recordings to my PC had come unstuck here, especially as I had no software that would play or convert the files.A question to the supplier was answered swiftly and they recommended a bit of software called KM Player. However, I didn't go down that route as I found a better way.Tucked away in the settings, where incidentally you can alter such things as the aspect ratio, there is a recording setting which can be toggled from the default TS (transport stream) to PS (program stream), If you do that (and I understand there may be issues with ps stream, but they've not happened to any of my recordings yet) then you get files in mpeg2 format, named 000.mp2, 001.mp2 etc, and these can be played just fine.Your only final gotcha here is that the recording might be split into multiple sequential files, and you then either need to use some software to join them into one, or,as I do, use XBMC, which will "stack" files like this automatically and treat them as one recording for you. Other players may do that, too, I don't know.The end result when played back on a PC looks fine, and certainly better than it looks on the TV in the first place.Of course, if you are planning on recording from the unit and playing back directly on the unit too, none of that need worry you. Make a recording, play it back, no fiddling required. Job done.For me, this is a backup system. I have a Virgin+ box and most of our recording is done on that, but on the occasion we want to archive something it's a fiddle, as we have to send the output to a DVD recorder, then rip the DVD to the PC, then encode it...using this unit as a kind of of "backup" recorder for anything we know we want to archive that's on Freeview works well for us.So, for my money, a great little product from a good seller. It does what I want, and for the money, does it well. If it lasts a year and breaks, well what do you want for twenty quid? Recommended.